


Daniel

by suecsit



Category: Cobra Kai, The Karate Kid
Genre: Fluffy, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, author notes at the bottom, end of series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 11:34:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15314619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suecsit/pseuds/suecsit
Summary: Daniel and Johnny have a rematch. Just a different kind. This is the final chapter in the "Bert" series.





	Daniel

Daniel

Johnny had dropped him off at the bar to fetch his car. During the drive, he and Daniel talked about where they wanted to go, and Daniel suggested they try a hotel. 

At that very moment, Johnny got a huge grin on his face. “Actually, I’ll drop you off and you can meet me,” he said, pulling into the Reseda parking lot. 

“Meet you where?”

“I’ll text you the address.”

“That phone has texting? Wow.”

“Save it….” Johnny looked like he wanted to say something else, but he stopped.

***  
When Daniel pulled in the driveway, his own house was silent. Amanda was staying at her mother’s for the time being, and she had taken Antonio with her. Sam had elected to stay at home, but she was out with Aisha. 

Daniel worried about Aisha almost as much as he did Sam. When Sam found out about her parents’ separation, she wasn’t surprised at all. The part that WOULD have destroyed her, however, was the part about Encino and all of the parties. Daniel had conveniently left that part out; he was not ready to justify himself to a teenager on that topic. But Aisha…

Aisha had to know that not only were Daniel and Johnny spending more time together. Daniel was also embroiled in some kind of hot mess that involved her parents. And once that word got out, everyone would know. Daniel wondered if her mother still wore the black ring. 

He shook the thoughts out of his head as he heard an SMS text go through to his smartphone. He laughed. Johnny must have typed the thing out in rotary fashion, pressing each number multiple times to get to the right letter that would correspond with his message.

When Daniel read the note, his first thought was that Johnny was jerking him around. His second thought was that maybe he revealed too much too soon about how he had felt. That didn’t stop him from feeling the rush of adrenaline in his upper body as he packed a bag of things from the dojo. 

Before he left, he grabbed his wallet, phone, and keys. How strange that everything he owned now related to Johnny. On his metal ring was a key to open Cobra Kai’s door. His wallet had been thrown on a wet pool floor the day they held their first training together and Johnny had pushed him in.  
There was before Johnny and after Johnny. And after him, he felt like he had found a the last piece of a puzzle he needed to complete himself.

On Topanga Beach he felt like he was still searching for a bigger house, a bigger life, even though he had it made. Now he realized the truth of what he once told Kumiko in Japan, that home was where you hung your hat.

It didn’t matter what four walls surrounded him. Not anymore. Not the way it used to. He wanted his children safe and cared for, but beyond that, the wine cellar, the sixth dealership he wanted to open, the donations to civic organizations just to save face…it faded as if he had finally woken up from a bad dream.

It was like a magnet pulling him toward the shoreline and the ocean floor beyond it, leading him from an old life to a new one. 

Before he got in the car, he found his black ring tucked away in a dresser drawer and hurled it into the pool.

***

Rainfall, like the kind they had this afternoon, made his knee ache. It often did. And now it seemed comical that the pain was getting more pronounced. 

When he stepped up to the mat, he looked around. Nobody was there. He thought he had beat Johnny to the university, but then he wondered why the door had been unlocked. Someone had broken in. He adjusted the tie on his gi and checked his watch and then his phone. 

He heard rather than saw him enter. “You said you had a dream about this,” Johnny intoned, moving toward the center of the gymnasium. “I want to know more about it.”

Daniel laughed. “Johnny…this is all a little weird.” He looked at the man’s clothes—black uniform, patches on the leg…. “A hotel would be eas—Shit, is that your original gi?”

“Yup.”

“You’re a hoarder, you know that, right?”

“What? Yours isn’t?” He motioned to Daniel’s crest on the back with the bonsai tree. 

“It’s the same crest, sure, but I don’t fit that thing anymore. I sold it at a garage sale.”

Johnny smiled. “Yeah, you are a little taller. Not by much though.”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “So what’s the plan?”

“You tell me.”

“I have no idea.”

“You’re full of crap…I know you don’t like people telling you where to go, but I wasn’t trying to go alpha on you. I wanted you to have your fantasy.”

“My fantasy?” Daniel frowned. “Oh! The dream, you mean…Actually, Johnny, it wasn’t really a major thing. I was exaggerating.”

“Right.”

“I told you the gist. You get the last point, and then it all goes quiet—“

Johnny’s face registered shock and something else Daniel couldn’t put his finger on. “You didn’t tell me I WON in your fantasy. You said I handed you the trophy.”

“It’s not a fantasy, asshole,” Daniel said without rancor, although he felt suddenly defensive. “It was just a dream. There were a couple of versions. It usually depended on what I ate for dinner that night.”

Johnny chuckled. “What version do you want to act out now?”

“You’re serious.” Daniel looked around. Only the emergency lights were on. Their voices echoed through the empty space. “Last call…you’re sure you don’t want to go to a hotel?”

“Hey, don’t play dumb. You put on the outfit so you knew something was up.” Johnny crossed the mat. “You always have a choice, remember?” 

There was that rush of adrenaline again. Daniel straightened up, determined to keep his dignity. Then Johnny pulled on his tie and tugged him close, and he had trouble breathing properly. 

“This must be how I won,” Johnny said softly, feeling Daniel relax in his grasp and his defenses melt a little. He leaned close to speak, his lips inches from Daniel’s face. 

Then, teasingly, he backed up. “I’m right here, man. Do your worst.”

Daniel looked spellbound at first and then frustrated at being denied the closeness. Then he shook it off and rubbed his forehead. “I’ve got to be crazy.”

“What happened to the brave guy who yelled at me in the parking lot?” Johnny challenged. “You gave me hell for hours. Then you started molesting me.”

“Oh, is that how you remember it?” 

“That’s how I remember it.” Johnny winked at him, and Daniel felt his legs turn to jelly again. “Come on, Larusso, your fantasy is here. Tell me where you want me.”

Daniel’s face flushed. “Well, it’s actually just like this.”

“Keep going…”

“In the dream where you win—“

“So we are doing that one… Good choice.”

“Shut up. In the dream you block the crane, and the kick doesn’t land.”

“Ok. So let’s try it.”

Daniel relaxed into the one leg stance, raising his arms. Johnny stood in fighting position. Their eyes met. 

When Daniel moved to shift his weight, Johnny’s arm came up to block the kick before it even happened. The next thing he knew, he found himself on the mat. Johnny was still holding his leg.

“Ok, that’s close enough,” he panted, a bit surprised at how much it hurt. 

Johnny looked down at him. “You ok?”

“Yeah, it’s just my knee. The rain and all.”

Johnny smiled tenderly at him. “So what happens now?” His hand took a different approach, gently massaging the place on his leg that seemed stiff. 

“Actually, this is good right here. You can just give me a massage.”

“Nope. Tell the truth. What happens next?”

“I try to get up quick enough to save the point. But you stop it.” Daniel tried to sit up, and Johnny playfully pushed him down. His head bumped against the floor. “Yep, that’s about right.”

Now Johnny leaned in. He was close enough so that Daniel could feel his breath. “And then?” 

“And then you kiss me and everything else disappears.”  
“Is that all?” Johnny asked, his face still hovering over Daniel’s. 

“No,” Daniel muttered. He felt the crimson rise up his neck. “I struggle, but you’re bigger, I mean, back then anyway,” he corrected before Johnny got too excited. “I start to get really mad…”

“Sounds about right.”

“And then you make some wise crack…”

“Oooh, I want to hear what it is.”

“Nope.” Daniel shook his head. 

“Tell me,” Johnny instructed and bent close to kiss him. Once their lips touched Daniel couldn’t remember what he was protesting. He felt his arms tighten and push at first, just as he struggled in his dream, and then he relaxed into Johnny’s arms. He had a fleeting thought that anyone could walk in…a janitor…a student… Embarrassingly, it didn’t stop him from submitting.

Johnny kissed him until they both ran out of breath and came up for air. Daniel turned his face to the side to recover. He felt Johnny’s lips traveling down his neck and arched into it. “Tell me what I said,” Johnny mumbled, feasting on Daniel’s neck. 

Daniel’s eyes closed, and he confessed it before he knew what he was doing. “You say…”

“Mmhm…”

“Are you mad because I beat you…. or because my beating you turns you on?” 

He felt Johnny’s lips curl on his neck. “Nice,” the man commented. “I’m such a bad ass, aren’t I? Even in your dreams.”

Daniel wanted to argue, but he was too captivated by what those lips were doing. His entire body felt focused on that one point above his pulse. He sighed, and before he knew it, he was nodding.

“So you agree.” Johnny’s hand moved lower to untie the belt. 

Daniel’s eyes were still closed. Like that day at Mr. Miyagi’s, he was losing track of where he was. Of who he was. But it felt wonderful. “Yes,” he whispered.

“What else did I do to you?”

“It was like this,” Daniel breathed, “Only you pulled my clothes off and then…”  
Johnny pulled at the string on the white gi pants. His hand dipped lower. 

“Oh god,” he whispered. Something about the combination of feeling that white uniform against his skin and then feeling Johnny’s hands on him, in the most sensitive place on his body…

Johnny’s lips bent low. “Remember what you did that night at the All Valley meeting? It’s my turn,” he grinned. He bent and feasted on Daniel, starting slow, tasting him. He felt the body buck beneath him at the first contact. 

“Johnny…” Daniel felt like he was being devoured. Like his soul stood on a precipice and waited to fall into something bigger, something he always wanted but could never find. “Please…” he moaned, his hands fisting beside him, the bandana on his head falling off as his head tilted backward on the mat.

Johnny reached out and threaded his fingers through Daniel’s beside him. His mouth moved faster until the body under him was squirming, desperate for release. “I can’t….please…” Daniel begged. 

He didn’t want to come inside Johnny’s mouth. That was something that Daniel let other people do to him, not the other way around. He shoved ineffectually at the head below, trying to tell him to move. “You don’t have to…”

Suddenly Johnny’s hands clamped down his hips, holding him firmly against the floor. That was all it took. Daniel’s mouth fell open, and his lungs felt starved for oxygen, but he felt safe despite the helplessness. When Daniel finally reached his peak, he wanted Johnny to swallow him whole. 

It was like freefalling, only Johnny was waiting at the bottom to comfort him, to cushion his fall. The very inverse of what happened when he was fifteen. Things were being rewritten, updated, changed. The past was no longer just his but theirs. 

The white noise and the blank space cleared, and Daniel felt suddenly very bereft when Johnny’s lips left him. He reached out to pull him close but failed. His entire body was limp. That and he just wanted to sleep. For days. 

Johnny looked down and realized his partner was barely awake. He took Daniel’s open gi and wrapped him up again with gentle hands. He tied the waist tie with careful hands and then reached back to find the bandana that had fallen off. Daniel’s eyes opened for a moment, only halfway. “But you didn’t—“ Daniel was trying to offer something, his hand reaching out to touch Johnny’s pants.

“Shh, I’ve got you,” Johnny said, wiping the sweaty hair back. “You don’t have to please anyone except yourself.” Johnny held him the way Mr. Miyagi held him after Bobby ruined his leg. 

“It’s just…I didn’t sleep when she left…”

“I know,” Johnny soothed. “Just rest.” He cradled Daniel’s head in his lap, gently stroking the head of dark hair. He tried to tie the bandana back on. Daniel shook his head.

“It’s yours” he mumbled, halfway to unconsciousness. Johnny looked down at the flower shaped emblem that decorated the front of the material. The one Ali had given him was a simple, black band. This one was so much more.

He leaned over and kissed Daniel on the forehead. “It’s both of ours,” he whispered, and continued to stroke the hair away from his forehead.

***

What Daniel didn’t realize was that Johnny had brought Cobra Kai’s first place trophy to the gym that day. He had brought it so they could act out the other version of the dream.

**Author's Note:**

> So that line about "does my beating you turn you on?" is not my line and is a tribute to one of my favorite writers from the 2000s, Aja Romano, who wrote the most beautiful Harry/Draco story called "Love Under Will." To this day it still remains a work in progress. Unfortunately, you can't find it archived except in old files, but if you google it, those old archives should still pop up. Here's a link that should work: http://notquiteroyal.com/luw/ Basically, there's a quidditch match, and Harry loses, and you can figure out the rest. :)
> 
> There is a line about magnets and the ocean floor that comes from songwriter Andrew McMahon. I love his song "Ohio" with all of my heart and it reminds me of Daniel every time.
> 
> Thank you so much especially to Pinkshipper and the TheEmpressAR for your friendship and encouragement. I wasn't sure I wanted to finish this, but you guys made me inspired again.
> 
> Final note: Daniel's son is called BOTH Antonio and Anthony in the series. I elected to refer to him as Antonio in this story, but I'll probably change it in the future. It's the only thing the Cobra Kai writers did wrong, in my opinion. To check this out, watch "Counterbalance" where Daniel calls him Antonio and then "Molting," where Sam calls him Anthony.


End file.
